Heart rate not tracking at start of activity

Had an odd one during a weekend ride. The HR seems to start reasonably well but then runs low for over two hours - I wish I was as fit as it was showing!

During that time I took the watch off, paused it, cleaned it, etc, to no difference several times. Finally during the break I saved the ride and restarted the watch, the HR finally started to pick up for the rest of the ride. Thankfully the resume worked still for the ride.

I've had it picked up slow before but never do this. GPS was fine, other sensors too. Altitude started a little low but was really the HR that messed up. Like some figure used in the math to calculate had got messed up and it couldn't correct itself.ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1318124.png

Just wanted to stop in and wish this issue a "happy birthday".
I wish I had something meaningful to share as to how to work around this issue better, but I don't. One workout it seems to track, but how do I ever really know unless I spend my workout manually tracking my tracker??? The next workout I spend 3/4 of the time starting/stopping/powering on/off.....lather, rinse, and repeat. I find I'm spending more time in my workouts seeing if this is working correctly then I am focused on my workout.

I have a similar issue not exactly the same but as follows: When I wear the watch and just measures the heart rate continuously it seems to work ok. The problem is when I use the activity Indoor Cycling. The heart rate is not measured correctly and actually decrease as I do the exercise. I think this was working ok before the upgrade to V 8.

Rgrds

Same thing happens all the time to me, especially on the elliptical (in fact, I haven't had an elliptical workout without it happening):



It also happens when playing badminton:



It does NOT happen however when I run. I've only had my Fenix (5s) since December, so I only ran with it with long sleeves, entirely covering the device.

Both elliptical and badminton are always with bare hand - the device is exposed to light. So my theory is that the cadence lock thing is real and Garmin needs to tweak their algorithms to better (quicker?) compensate for it or otherwise fix it.

I don't believe the hardware is flawed as once HR properly locks (about 5-6 minutes into the exercise normally) - it seems to be working as expected.

For some reason it doesn't let me edit my post, so I'll post in here what I wanted to add - This is spanning multiple firmware versions. I'm currently at 8.0 and I've noticed no change of this behavior with any of the firmware updates.

Hey Garmin is anyone listening? This issue is approaching 3 months old!
This weekend I lost another workout worth of data. Said my heart rate was 98 when it was 160. After 4 or 5 reboot/restarts the problem persisted. Though judging by these 5x forums, the number of issues, and the lack of timely response - I guess that's considered close enough in Garmins world.

Tom

I switched to using my HR strap most of the time. It’s more accurate anyway - even when the watch does eventually pick up.

I’m curious if this is still happening to you or if you ever received an update or reason. I have a new Fenix 5 running 12.0 that is experiencing the same issue. First 5 minutes of logging cardio, I have to stop/restart my watch several times before it picks up the heart rate that matches my Orange Theory forearm monitor.

This morning I shaved the hair under the watch to see if that is the culprit so I will update once I test that out.

I agree, this is extremely frustrating to deal with on such a high end device. My Forerunner 235 never had this issue. My girlfriend recently purchased a Forerunner 645 music and it has been accurate from start to finish.

My next course of action is calling Garmin for a resolution or a refund. There is zero reasons that this can’t be resolved by a hotfix or a recall.

Funny enough - it happened again to me today. Was on a two hour bike ride and it went erratic during second hour. Dropped down to an average of 80bpm - and I know it was much closer to 140bpm! It never recovered before the end of the ride. Its like the calculation has got messed up and is just recording at a much lower rate.

(I've always had a low reading for the first 15 mins and then it picks up - though, in fairness to Garmin, I did read you are meant to warm up for 15-20 mins first somewhere in the help files)

Mick,